“Amid protests, Penn swimmer Lia Thomas becomes first known transgender athlete to win Division I national championship,” ESPN breathlessly reports. 

As if a man beating women in a sport where physical strength and endurance are key is some sort of glass ceiling being broken.

Supporters of female athletes fume, but carefully avoid touching the third rail by insisting on calling him “her” and referring to Mr. Thomas as “Lia” instead of as Will Thomas.

Take this extensive editorial in Swimming World News which fumes at the outcome and calls it a joke, but also keeps calling Will Thomas “her” and “Lia”.

No, this title-winning effort in the 500-yard freestyle should be met with nothing less than a head shake, an eye roll or a shrug of the shoulders. Why? Because Lia Thomas’ victory is an insult to the biological women who raced against her. Against those who fought for Title IX and equal opportunities for female athletes. Against science, and the unmistakable physiological differences between the male and female sexes.

Just not in our willingness to call him what he is.

I get it. Writing what I just did opens you up to charges of transphobia. Defenders of female sports would like to keep the focus on the biological differences without actually denying that men can become women.

That’s an unsustainable argument.

Either a man can become a woman or he can’t. If he can, then the point is moot. Debating biological differences becomes a non-issue. If you treat Will as Lia then you’re just arguing the difference between, as critics put it, “biological women” and “transgender women”. 

Giving in to the Left’s core argument and then trying to debate technicalities is a losing proposition.

The Left wins arguments by reframing basic common sense realities. Accept the frame and you lose. 

This is what anyone, not just conservatives, fighting the Left has yet to learn.